In The Next Room (Or The Vibrator Play)

It gives the term ‘the body electric’ a whole new meaning...

Colin McColl directs a stellar cast including Anna Jullienne, Richard Knowles, Hera Dunleavy and Toni Potter in the acclaimed comedy, In the Next Room (Or the Vibrator Play).

This scintillating new play by exciting young American writer Sarah Ruhl combines scientific history, politics of desire, and sexual behaviour in a delicious comedy.

Set in Saratoga Springs, New York, 1880. The electrical age dawns and Dr Givings a coolly rational man of 19th century science, is obsessed with its potential. His Chattanooga Vibrator, a modern device for treating hysteria, has many advocates - not least the female patients, who come back wanting more. Meanwhile his wife Catherine (Anna Jullienne), lonely and struggling with new motherhood, seeks the companionship of her husband’s patients and aches to discover just what goes on in the next room.

“It’s clever; it’s very, very funny; and it’s based on a true story. Set in the early days of electricity - the straight-laced, corseted 1880s - it gives the term “the body electric” a whole new meaning!” - Colin McColl, Auckland Theatre Company’s Artistic Director.